Tips on East Prussian Genealogy

 

Here you can find some good tips for your East Prussian genealogical research.  
I have added quite a few tips lately, so good luck!


Looking for ancestors in the St. Johannis Church in Memel

If you are just starting out with Genealogy, German Genealogy, emigration, etc., I would check out other genealogy websites for tips of that nature.  There are many sites that deal with starting genealogy.  This site is basically for people who have reached the "East Prussian" point in their research. 

If you have no knowledge of German, you have a few options.  First, you can hire a genealogist to research your family line.  Unfortunately, I cannot help with names and addresses, but the LDS and various other websites may be able to help you (please look on my Genealogy Links page for the links).  

If you don't find the information you seek online, use online sources to determine what offline avenues are available to you.

  • Learn the history of Germany, study maps and find out whatever you can about the area you are searching in.  It's not that easy, sometimes frustrating, but it is certainly worth the effort. Take a look at my references pages to find out some facts and figures about East Prussia.  

  • Get a detailed map of the area in East Prussia you are looking at.  It's sometimes hard to scan a particular map, being that they don't normally fit on the scanner.  Sometimes historical maps of the area show farms, cemeteries, churches, railroad stations, and much more.  I have found a great deal of information just by looking at maps.  (Is it likely that an ancestor in the 1800s moved to a town more than 20 km away?  Probably not!)  The Institut für Angewandte Geodäsie is a good place to start for maps.

Where can you write to, though?   If, for example, you have the religion of your ancestor, try the archives of the respective churches and parishes.  Here it is helpful to have a year/date of birth/death for them.   Although these people do not do the research for you, they can tell you if the documents exist in their archives.  If, on the other hand, you have the town/city/Kreis (circle = county) where your ancestor came from, and it lies in East Prussia, then I suggest you start with Berlin Standesamt I (Berlin City Hall I).   This address can be found on my Useful Addresses page!   I would give the rough (or exact, if you have it!) date of birth/death and the place.   The workers at the city hall don't like to go digging through lots of archives for "just another name," even though it's not just another name to you!

  • You might want to try looking at my postal codes page.  This is newly added, and I have found many postal codes for the parishes I have looked for.  I haven't received word (yet!), but it might be another alternative to the Historical State Archives in Vilnius.

If you've written to the archives in German (what I recommend), you will most likely receive a letter in German, and to translate, I can recommend that you find a college student to translate, an online translator, or a good german-english dictionary!  But even if you have your dictionary by your side, some letters may be hard to read.

 

  • A note about writing to the Lithuanian Archives:  please look at my Archives page.

  • A note about writing letters to people in Lithuania in general.  It is advisable to send a little thank you to the people who have helped you.  I once sent a small box of chocolates (made in the town I live in) as a thank you to a woman who traveled 5 km to find the pastor of the town I was looking for.  I later found out that the woman would have appreciated money more.  I guess you just need to use people skills!

     

  • Are Umlauts (those little dots over vowels) important?  YES!!!  The meaning of names, places and types of work can change if you don't add those dots.   

 

Still Stuck? 

  • Don't forget to try, and try again!  I recently was on the FamilySearch.org site, and found that they have updated their files for East Prussia.  I found the parents' names of one of my ancestors I have been searching for for years!

  • Grasp at straws!  Research from another end -- advertise in the town's newspaper, or research that paper's archives (you never know why your ancestor left the old country!) -- and check your data!!!   Have all people said the same thing about your relative?  Are you using his given name, and not a nickname? 

 

Don't be discouraged, though, if you receive a negative reply. I have received many of them as well.  Here, I can only suggest that you

Be Creative!

Think of all possible places that you could find out information.  The Internet has developed into the genealogist's dream come true!  There are name searches, city searches, and all sorts of different ways of finding out the information you need.  If you happen to have a creative moment, let me know!  I can post it for you here on this page.